Week of 05 Nov 2023
“If anything survived that, you’ve got bigger problems.”
Achievements Earned In:
- Pac-Man and the Ghostly Adventures
- State of Decay
- Just Dance
- Vampire Survivors
Didn’t get around to Pac-Man and the Ghostly Adventures much this week. I quickly knocked out the final stage of the second chapter, fighting the giant stone giant boss by Monday. It was slightly annoying, as you have to launch these rolling boulders at particular parts of the boss’s face and the aiming is non-existent. Actually, the main mechanic of these stages was annoying, turning into a Pac-boulder and having to Monkey Ball around the platforming sections. But, overall the game continues to be very easy and I can’t imagine this will be hard to just wrap up quickly.
Achievements unlocked: 10 (+2) | Completion: 40%
Oh… hai. That’s a nice grill you got there.
Didn’t get a whole lot done in anything else this week as I (very) slowly get through the Breakdown DLC for State of Decay. For each “level” of the mode, you have to survive while locating an RV, and then fixing it up using an increasing amount of various supplies. That actually wouldn’t take long on its own, but the meat of the actual completion is the challenges. You could technically grind all 34 of the challenges in level 5, but… that would require a ridiculous stockpile of materials and supplies and ammo and all that. I’m instead doing each batch as I unlock them, so doing the first few in level 1, the next in level 2, etc. And, man, level 1 took ages. The main challenges that require a good chunk of time and scavenging are The Scholar and The Father. The former requires researching all the subjects available in the library facility, while the former requires all facilities to be fully upgraded.
My first step was to get established in a large home base with enough space to build all available facilities, and I went with the Trumbull County Fairgrounds in Fairfield. It’s large, easily defensible with outposts in the surrounding buildings, and a good location for scavenging, and I used this location each time I moved to a new level of Breakdown. The spacious base allows building of multiple facilities at once, and then upgrading them all, too. One problem you have to be aware of is that you can’t upgrade built-in facilities, so if the base you chose has a, say, kitchen already, you’re gonna have to make a second to upgrade and get progress for the challenge. I… actually didn’t know this when I moved, but I had luckily been upgrading the church’s guard tower and the kitchen and eating area (all prebuilt in the Fairgrounds) I’d built so those, were checked off. Once you have particular ones upgraded, this unlocks more research in the library, so you want to have that built first. Also, progress made towards The Scholar is the only one that appears to be universal, so if you have everything else done you could go ahead and move to the next level if you want, though you’ll have to build back up a base and the library to continue working on it. With supplies getting more and more sparse as you progress, that seems like a poor choice. I guess it’s a time vs. ease argument. After these two challenges are completed, though, the rest aren’t very time-consuming and you can usually get them done easily enough, though RNG can hold you up. I ended the week just about to head into level 4, which I’ve heard is when things start really heating up. Should be interesting.
Achievements unlocked: 40 (+2) | Completion: 87%
With my gaining weight from the grief I’ve been enveloped in for months now and the stress of the year-and-a-half prior, I just felt I needed to give Just Dance another shot ASAP so I could start getting back even somewhat to my main source of exercise. And, hey, I didn’t break down this time! Though, I instead channeled that into yelling at the game after every song because what is wrong with Ubisoft?! The phone app pales in comparison to how the game felt playing with Kinect, and it’s just…not as fun anymore. I mean, it can be if I try to turn my brain off and just play without concern from the unwarranted OK and Poor scores, but they nibble at my brain and cause frustration anyway. Thank goodness the achievements for this game/hub app are easily the easiest in the franchise, and I completed the most “difficult” of them this week. The other games in the series required my earning the highest score on all songs in the list. For this one, you just have to score Megastar (12k points) twice. That’s it! So I got one Megastar on “Runaway (U & I)” on Thursday and then the other on Saturday while playing “Don’t Worry Be Happy”. If you know the games, these are both songs from previous iterations of the franchise, and that’s because I just cannot get acceptable scores on any of the new songs (yet). That’s so frustrating when I’m used to getting Megastar on most songs on my very first try in every other game! Ugh. Whatever, at least I’m working out and getting to this game.
Achievements unlocked: 10 (+9) | Completion: 71%
Didn’t really play Vampire Survivors this week. I just jumped on to get an achievement quick after work before running to a hangout with friends. Just had to grab a relic quick in the new Whiteout level and that was it. Like, a few minutes, tops.
Achievements unlocked: 189 (+1) | Completion: 96%
Highest ratio: 3.61
EXTRA: Antidote (Vampire Survivors)
Lowest ratio: 1.11
Consolation Prize (Just Dance)
